[Buddha-l] God is Emptiness?

[S.A. Feite]

Dalai Lama Quote of the Week

Question: Western religions use the term "God", and Buddhism does  
not. Could emptiness or nirvana be considered God? If the afflictive  
obstruction that is the conception of inherent existence is  
eliminated, does one realize that everything is God?

Dalai Lama: If God is interpreted as an ultimate reality or truth,  
then selflessness may be considered as God and even as a creator in  
the sense that within the nature of emptiness things appear and  
disappear. In this sense, emptiness is the basis of everything;  
because of emptiness, things can change, and things can appear and  
disappear.* Thus, voidness--emptiness, selflessness--is this kind of  
basis.

* For more on this see Dharma Quotes Archive, May 7 and May 26, 2007  
quotes, and Dalai Lama Quotes Archive, April 28, 2007.

--from The Dalai Lama at Harvard: Lectures on the Buddhist Path to  
Peace by H.H. the Dalai Lama of Tibet, translated and edited by  
Jeffrey Hopkins, published by Snow Lion Publications